Negotiating Conflict: Regional and National Identities in Contemporary Pakistani Fiction in English 1

Pakistan has frequently been viewed as a stronghold of Islamic radicals, often being overlooked that various trends of both dormant and obvious conflicts exist between the politics of religion and region. Whereas the former is mainly controlled by the state, the latter is generally influenced by language and ethnicity. The state’s monolithic notion of national identity, from the country’s birth in 1947 to the present, has overshadowed the regional identities mainly the Pashtuns, Baluchis, and Sindhis, and disregarded the minority credos such as Shias, Parsis, Ahmadis, Hindus and Christians. This article aims to overview how contemporary Pakistani fiction in English spotlights images of a fragmented national-self, underlining plights of the aforementioned marginalised groups exhibiting a strong resistance to hidebound national identity. Reviewing the selected fiction of Bapsi Sidhwa, Sara Suleri, Kamila Shamsie, Nadeem Aslam, Bina Shah, and Jamil Ahmad, t his paper attempts to foreground the socio-cultural and political valuation of the regional identities.


Introduction
Politics of religion backed by the separatist Muslim identity has often been glorified by the official historiography in Pakistan. On the contrary, politics of region emerging from the region's diversified indigenous identities have usually been marginalized and disregarded by Pakistan's state narrative (Chambers, 2011, p. 123). However, contemporary Pakistani fiction in English 1 Initially this paper was presented at the Second IIUI-UNCW Conference on "Local Cities, Foreign Capitals: Finding the Local Anchor in the Global Cultures" held from 9 to 11 October 2017 at Faisal Mosque Campus of International Islamic University, Islamabad. This revised and improved version of the paper is published here for the first time. (henceforth called CPFE), in line with South Asian fiction in general, has substantially been marked as an attempt to rewrite the Muslim identity based on creed (Rasool & Khalis, 2019, p. 62). In many of the oppressed societies such as that of Pakistan, fiction seems to be an influential channel through which a 'genuine historical event' is documented (Waterman, 2015, p. 156).
CPFE manages to create what Waterman calls 'historical fiction ' (2015, p. 156). Arguably, CPFE fills the gap created by the state historiography hinging on the politics of religion and thereby marginalizing the local and regional identities, gender equality, and class struggle in the country.
Literature is generally considered as a fine product of the time and place in which it is written. At the same time, it is an influential tool that leaves imprints on both time and clime. The socio-cultural and political issues of the time are negotiated in a literary text to evaluate them in the light of various contemporary influences and discursive practices. Literary depiction reciprocates social and political activities of the time in which the text is produced. Similarly, freedom, resistance, deviance, and defiance essentially develop a broader understanding of the culture and society in which the text is produced. Montrose calls this reciprocity 'historicity of text' and 'textuality of history' (Barry, 2009, p. 165-181). The interplay of multiple discourses in a literary text defies the notion of a universal spirit of an age working in a literary text. The text is studied in the light of co-text constituted varied aspects and artefacts shaped by and in turn shape the culture in which they emerge.
Arts and literature, besides their aesthetics, are vulnerable to the influences of history, material conditions and socio-cultural dynamics. It can be argued that 'aesthetic forms are highly sensitive sites of social, political, and even economic conflicts; as such, they can reveal contradictions in social conditions and foster a standpoint for a materialist critique of them' (Gregory, 2007, pp. 130-34 article underscores how CPFE recounts perception of Pakistani society by rehierarchising the regional identities.

Identities in Conflict: A Pakistan Case
Pakistan has frequently been viewed as a stronghold of Islam, Islam Ka Qilla (fort of Islam) in the state narrative. However, parallel to this notion, there have been various trends, symbolising both explicit and implicit conflicts, existing between the perspectives of religion and region.
Whereas the former are mainly controlled by the state, the latter are influenced by language, literature, and class. The socio-political ethos of Pakistani society, being deeply rooted in pluralistic and eclectic values, represents a broad humanistic outlook of history, reflected in the secular aspects of the contemporary art and literature (Cilano, 2013, p. 1-2).
Since Pakistan movement was predominantly guided by a separatist Muslim identity, the state intelligentsia subsequently engineered a paradigm of national identity based on Islam, Urdu, and the Ideology of Pakistan. Regional identities, on the other hand, are generally rooted in the languages other than Urdu and the marginalized creeds other than the majoritarian Sunni sect.
Contrary to the state's monolithic identity, these regional/indigenous identities have been frequently perceived as threats to the mainstream state ideology. Evidently, the narrative of national identity forms a fragmented national-self failing to fit well into the socio-cultural ethos of Pakistani society. The state narrative has traditionally tended to silence regional identities, regional languages and regional literatures, minorities, women, and laity.

Images of a Fragmented National Self in Contemporary Pakistani Fiction in English (CPFE)
Whereas Pakistan's overemphasized notions of national identity and nationhood have generally overshadowed the country's regional and marginal dynamics, regional identities such as those of Pashtuns, Sindhis, and Baluchis, and minorities such as Parsis, Shias, Ahmadis, Christians, and Hindus have been marginalized and otherized. Notwithstanding the state's Islamist nationalist narrative projected by the country's oligarchy, Pakistan's regional identities have drawn the attention of several works of CPFE. Howbeit, literary scholars have largely ignored the importance of those fiction that explore issues of the marginalized regional identities. It can be argued that from Partition to the present, regional identities have been clouded by the prevailing national Identity. Nevertheless, contemporary Pakistani fiction in English attempts to fill some of this gap. Regional images are quite obvious in CPFE, as they exhibit strong resistance to an imaginary monolithic Islamist national identity. The present study aims to bring critical attention of the scholars to the socio-cultural and political valuation of the regional identities through a broad survey of contemporary Pakistani fiction in English with a particular focus on the writings of Bapsi Sidhwa, Sara Suleri, Nadeem Aslam, Kamila Shamsie, Bina Shah, and Jamil Ahmad.
Circumnavigating the CPFE, one immediately observes that Bapsi Sidhwa stands preeminent as 'the first Pakistan-Resident' English novelist who received international literary fame and acclaim (Shamsie, 2017). She writes about the margin and has remarkably unmuted the silences of the regional and peripheral voices. Her fiction is marked by the cultural impact of Islam rather than by Muslim identity. She is regarded as a 'secular' and 'agnostic' person, but at the same time she carries 'a Muslim civilizational heritage' (Claire, 2011, p. 124 identity but also becomes a prominent feature in the identity of the non-Muslims (be they Hindus, Zoroastrians, Jews, or Christians) who happen to live in Muslim communities' (p. 124).
Muneeza Shamsie (2017) considers Sidhwa as 'the first to give the 'homegrown' Pakistani-English novel a clear, contemporary voice ' (p. 195). Being a part of the Parsi/Zoroastrian community, Sidhwa is particularly interested in 'the history and changing social and political structures of her community' in her novels (Shamsie, 2017, p. 195 Brat (Shamsie, 2017).
Sidhwa's first novel The Crow Eaters (1978) is mainly about her own marginalized community. The novel asserts Sidhwa's 'strong sense' of marginalized community (Shamsie, 2017 The predicament of Pakistani women, shackled to patriarchal traditions and male-oriented norms, and" treated as chattels" is daringly articulated in three of her novels: The Bride (also published as The Pakistani Bride), Cracking India, and An American Brat (Jussawalla, 2003, p. 261). Images of regional identities appear much affectionately in The Bride which depicts yet another marginalized community, the Kohistani tribe, which is split in the lands between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Bride approaches another important theme of migration and displacement which is otherwise side-lined in the official state narrative of the country in the interests of the nationhood. Migration at the time of Partition, for instance, witnessed the worst kinds of brutality, atrocities, killing, mutilations, and rapes the human race would ever have come across in modern history. Sidhwa provides her keen insight into several displacements and movements, including the rural subalterns moving to the cities for labour. Both in her The Bride and Water, Sidhwa lashes out, though much vigorously in Water, at 'the social hypocrisy' of Pakistani society, particularly related to women folk (Shamsie, 2017). The issues of 'institutionalized prostitution', 'child bride/child widow' and women's plight and pains are consolidated in both Ice Candy Man/ Cracking India and Water (Shamsie, 2017, pp. 202-207  emotions and feelings of these tribes on the margins are delicately hospitable. Mapping the rugged landscape, Jamil uses a vivid imagery that leaves a lasting impact and that gives life to the sufferings of the people. Jamil opens the story of 'a wandering tribal falcon' Tor Baz, which means 'black falcon' in Pashto. The very first sentence of the novel takes us into the region hardly ever mentioned in the mainstream narratives. 'In the tangle of crumbling, weather-beaten and broken hills, where the borders of Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan meet, is a military outpost manned by about two score soldiers' (2011, p. 1). The landscape is so deadly that it bears "no habitation" and 'no vegetation' and 'no water' and 'nature has not remained content merely at this' because she has also created 'the dreaded' wind that blows 'clouds of alkali-laden dust and sand so thick that men can merely breathe or open their eyes when they happen to get caught in it' (Ahmad, 2011, p. 1). Jamil further moves on to the often neglected, disregarded, unvoiced, war-ruined Pashtuns and Baluch of the most neglected and barren region of Pakistan.

Conclusion
The aforementioned survey has attempted to underscore how CPFE has given expression to the muffled regional and marginalized voices. CPFE has thus maintained an alternative and subversive version of the socio-political realities of Pakistan offering a contrast to the mainstream Muslim nationalist narratives. It has been argued that whereas the centrist state imposes an ideology which foregrounds a political separatist shade of religion, CPFE brings into the limelight politics of region, language, and class. CPFE also brings to the fore the fragmented national self which frequently comes into conflict with the politics of region, language and class. Whereas the state's monolithic and fossilized version of nationhood has overruled the socio-cultural continuity of the region, CPFE has emphasized the realities of region, language and class viewing them as more substantive components of the socio-cultural ethos of Pakistani society.